with funds, and Calvin, Bullinger, and Gesuer-in vain sought to obtain for Lismanini leave to return to Po- land. It was not until 1556 that he was permitted to return, but the king's favor he never regained, notwith- standing the efforts of a large number of the Polish nobility in his behalf. His Socinian views on the doc- trine of the Trinity served still more to bring him into discredit. As he attempted to make converts he was exiled from Poland. He retired to Konigsberg, where he became counsellor of duke Albrecht. About 1563 he became distracted on account of family difficulties, and committed suicide by drowning. His chief pro- duction is Brevis ExpUcatio doctriiuB de sanctissima Trinitate, quani Stancaro et aliis quihusdam opposuit (1565, 8 vo). See Bibl. antitrinitai-iorum, p. 34; Bayle, Hist. Diet. ; Friese, Beitrdge z. Ref.-Gesch. in Polen, ii, 1, p.247sq.; Yock,Der Socinianismus,\,\^b; Herzug, Real- Encyklopddie, x, 426 ; Hoefer, Nouv, Biog. Gen. xxxi, 356. (J.H.W.)
LLst, Carl Benjajiin, a German theologian, was born at JMannheim, in the grand-duchy of Baden, Feb. 5, 1725. He attended the universities of Jena and Stras- burg, and afterwards spent some time in Neufchatel to acquire I*"rench. About 1749 he was appointed court dean, in 1753 third pastor of his native city, and in 1756 first pastor of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church, togeth- er with the dignity of counsellor of the Consistory. He died Jan. 16, 1801. He possessed a pure, liberal, and re- forming character, and to him is due the honor of hav- ing abrogated the custom of paying for confession in the Evangelical-Lutheran Church. His productions, mostly of a corrective character in liturgy and hymns, were of great service to the Church to which he belonged. We mention Die Geschichte der Evangelisch - Lutherischen Gemeinde zu Mannheim (Mannheim, 1767, 8vo) : — Neue Liturgie fur die Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in der Churjifalz (ibid. 1783, 8vo). See Doring, Gelehrte Theol. Deutschlands, vol. ii, s. v.
Litany (Xiravda, entreaty'), a word the specific meaning of which has varied considerably at different times, is used in the liturgical services of some churches to designate a solemn act of supplication addressed with the object of averting the divine anger, and especially on occasions of public calamity. Hooker, in his Ecclesias- tical Polity (book v, p. 265), has the following : " As things invented for one purpose are by use easily con- verted to more, it grew that supplications with this so- lemnity for the appeasing of (Jod's wrath and the avert- ing of public evils were of the Greek Church termed litanies ; rogations, of the Latins."
The term litany for a supplicatory form of worship among the pagans was early adopted by Christian writ- ers. In the fourth century we find such occasions as litanies connected with processions, the clergy and peo- ple in solemn procession using certain forms of sup- phcation and making special entreaty for deliverance. Whether anything of this kind would have been ven- tured before Christianity became a '-religio licita" (A.D. 270) may be doubted. The predominance of a Chris- tian popidation, however, in certain localities, and the intervals of repose between persecutions, admit of their possibility at an earlier period. In these earliest de- velopments, moreover, of the processional litany, wheth- er before or during the fourth century, they rested, doubtless, upon an earlier Christian habit and custom — that of special seasons of prayer and supplication. These, in some cases, would be by the assembled body of believers in their houses or places of assembling; in others, for purposes of safety from the fury of their en- emies, in their individual homes and places of abode. Certainly the Church was not wanting in such occa- sions during the first centuries of her existence, when the course pursued by the disciples at Jerusalem (Acts xii, 5), and for similar reasons, would need to be repeat- ed. Occasions of this particular kind woidd of course pass away with the passing away of persecution. But
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others of a different character would take their place. As early, indeed, as the times of Tertullian and Cyprian we linoi allusions to Christian prayers, and fastings, and .supplications for the removal of drought, the repelling of enemies, the moderation of calamities ; and later, in the fourth and tifth centuries, we find the same thing, on a larger scale and in a more formal manner. Theo- (losius, preliminary to a battle, spent the whole night in fasting and prayer, and in sackcloth went with the ])riests and people to make supplication in all the clmrches. So, again, in the reign of one of his suc- cessors, a solemn litany or supplication on account of a great earthquake was made at Constantuiople. In these last cases, the element, to which allusion has been made, that of the procession, was undoubtedly present, and so continued until the time of the Keformation ; the name litany, indeed, being sometimes used simply to describe this part of it, as where seven litanies are directed by (iregory the Great to proceed from seven different churches (see below). The processions of the Arians in the times of Chrysostom, and the counter movement, on his part, by more splendid and imposing ones, to detract from any popularity which the j^ians may have at- tained in this way, are described by Socrates. It is not at all improbable that in somewhat the same manner the hymns of Arius became circulated in Alexandria in the early part of the fourth centurj-, and found lodgment in the minds of the populace.